Fishbowl by Bradley Somer

1. That the fish is called Ian. I like pets that have very much human names e.g. Graham, Kevin, Patricia.

2. Chapter headings that tell you a little of what’s to come. E.g. “In Which Petunia Delilah Learns That Birthing Can Become Complicated and That Her Housekeeping Skills Could Use Honing” and “In Which Homeschooled Herman Finds the Consciousness That He Recently Misplaced” and “In Which Claire the Shut-In Immerses Herself in an Edible History” and “In Which Petunia Delilah Gets a Fucking Ice Cream Sandwich“.

3. Somer manages to pack in a lot of detail with a minimum of words. For example, you completely know what sort of guy Connor (described as the ‘villain’, obviously an arsehole) thanks to the brief but rich back story.

4. The plain humour –

“Katie thinks to punch this other woman and even thinks specifically where she would punch her, right in the snatch.”

Things I wasn’t mad about in Bradley Somer’s Fishbowl:

1. The time travel stuff.

2. Were some of the characters just a little too peculiar? I think so.

3. The fate of Ian.

3/5 It had some terrific, funny moments but the time-travel bit discredited one of the story-lines.

I received my copy of Fishbowl from the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

One of the stories revolves around cooking a quiche. In searching for a quiche recipe with a mineral/soda water crust (as per the one in the story), I came across a recipe for apple pie with a vodka crust. Ace. A vodka crust is probably the only way you’ll get me eating hot fruit. Anyways, when it comes to quiche I have a few favourite combinations, including a simple spinach quiche (but I can’t over-emphasise how important it is to get the spinach-to-cheese ratio right. Thank God Martha understands me).

Funny because when I was reading it I felt that the sense of humour was quite British however there were words used that suggested it was set in America (eg. paramedic instead of ambulance). It was only when I finished that I discovered the author is Canadian – bridges the gap between UK and US humour!

I read the first half of your comments and thought “I need to read this book” and then I got to the time travel stuff and thought “meh, maybe not”. I’m not completely against time travel (I mean, I adore Outlander, but that’s more the exception than the rule). Maybe I’ll put Fishbowl at the very bottom of my tbr-list, just in case I ever run out of books.